Entertainment lighting equipment must often be transported from one performance venue to another during the course of a concert tour. The lighting equipment must be carefully packed in protective containers to survive the rigors of transporting the equipment from city to city.
One known technique for protecting the equipment during transport is the utilization of wooden boxes having their interiors lined with cushioning material and having handles and casters on the exterior of the container to facilitate handling. Once the equipment is packed inside a container, the container may be rolled on its casters and loaded into a truck for transport. Typically, the containers will be stacked one on top of the other, side by side, and from front to back in the truck to load as many containers as possible into each truck.
A significant practical consideration which influences the design and construction of such transport containers is the constraint that the containers must be loaded and stacked by no more than four people and must be able to be routinely handled by a single person. Additionally, the characteristics of the equipment to be housed within the container must be considered. In the case of automated luminaires, the size, shape, and weight of each lamp unit will determine the maximum number of lamp units that can be housed in a single case while still meeting the handling restrictions described above.
Storage containers are typically loaded onto a truck by rolling the containers into the truck, e.g., by utilizing a ramp or lift platform, standing the cases on end with the lid facing the front of the truck and the casters facing the door at the rear of the truck, and then lining the cases up side-by-side in a row across the width of the truck. When the container height permits, a second level of cases is stacked across the top of the first row. Thereafter, additional rows of cases may be stacked across the width of the truck behind the first row, with the lids of these containers adjacent to the casters of the first row of containers.
One known protective transport container is constructed of plastic-coated plywood panels having aluminum extrusion edge protectors and steel corner protectors riveted to the plywood panels. The major surfaces of such containers, however, are susceptible to abrasive damage resulting from the containers rubbing against each other and other objects during transportation. Additionally, the plywood panels are susceptible to water damage if rained on at an outdoor concert. As a result, over time the plywood panels will tend to warp and delaminate.
Although these containers provide a certain degree of impact resistance, they allow shocks to be transmitted to the equipment housed inside. Furthermore, the metal edge and comer protectors and the fastening rivets protrude from the otherwise smooth surface of the plywood side panels and tend to snag other objects. Additionally, the potential for these containers to damage other containers or equipment, or to injure stage hands who may be handling the containers is significant.
The riveted construction of such containers provides a potential failure point at each rivet, as leakage sites in the plywood side panels. In addition, the edge and comer protectors can separate from the cases and require replacement.
Other protective containers are constructed of plywood panels covered with indoor/outdoor carpet. While carpet-covered cases provide smooth exterior surfaces with no protrusions, the carpet does not weather well. Wet carpet becomes heavy, adding significant weight to the case. Additionally, wet carpet causes the plywood panels to rot and warp and tends to produce a foul odor.
Plywood cases are basically large, planar surfaces joined at right angles to form a rectangular enclosure. Due to the nature of plywood construction, other shapes are difficult to build. Construction of plywood cases is complex, requiring many pans to achieve the desired strength and stiffness. A considerable drawback of such cases is that they are relatively heavy compared to the equipment contained therein, and may comprise a significant part of the freight load of the truck transporting the equipment. Additionally, the construction of such cases is costly and labor-intensive. Interior details are limited by the plywood construction methods. While foam packing inserts may be utilized for cushioning the equipment inside the containers, the foam inserts tend to deteriorate over time, get dirty, and require replacement.
Aluminum cases are relatively expensive and have thin walls offering only minimal protection against impact damage. The aluminum extrusions that are typically used to reinforce the edges can be easily bent if stepped on while the container is open, and are difficult to repair. Containers having bent edge protectors are usually difficult to close and are nearly impossible to seal.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a protective road case container for lighting equipment and other concert production equipment which is free of the above described drawbacks and provides advantages which include durability, strength, improved stackability, shock absorbance, impact resistance and abrasion resistance.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a protective road case container that is waterproof, light-weight, inexpensive, easy to manufacture and safer and more efficiently handled than prior art designs.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a protective road case container which exploits the considerable advantages of a container constructed using a rotationally molded plastic process.